Challenges for biomarkers in cancer detection.

Cancer remains the leading cause of death in the United States. Biomarkers can be used to detect cancer in different stages, initiation, development, and progression. The desirable property and utility of a biomarker lie in its ability to provide an early indication of disease progression. Biomarkers should be easy to detect, measurable across populations, and useful for detection of cancer at an early stage, identification of high-risk individuals, detection of recurrence, or monitoring endpoints in intervention studies. Recent technological advances have helped develop noninvasive, sensitive, and specific biomarkers to detect cancer at early stages of the disease.